Today, almost anyone who wants to go places as a computer engineer has to first go through the requisite years of school to win a degree?or two or three. What does that mean? While a bachelor?s degree in computer engineering is nothing to sneeze at, those who want to be especially competitive in the job market and who want to find entry-level jobs with high salaries often go even further. Numbers speak louder than words in this case: in 2008, those with a Master?s in computer engineering made an average of almost $10,000 more than those with a Bachelor?s degree! The figures only increased even more for those holding doctorates.

And to get you started on the first steps toward success, it?s important to find computer engineering schools with everything that you need. First, the schools you?re interested in should be accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, or ABET for short. This non-profit organization evaluates postsecondary degree programs all over the US and decides which ones pass muster. Don?t even consider any computer engineering schools that haven?t passed its criteria. Once they?ve passed this first test, take a look at the long-term prospects available to you at each computer engineering school. If you intend to continue beyond a bachelor?s degree, does the school have a solid master?s program? Or, barring that, does it have a good track record for successfully sending graduates off to master?s programs located at other schools? If advanced degrees aren?t where your interest lies, then look at how much the school of your interest focuses on undergraduates compared to other computer engineering schools.

Computer engineering programs are becoming more popular not just in the US, but all across the world. This area of study is an exciting blend between electrical engineering and computer science. For anyone who has ever been interested in both of these fields, yet couldn?t decide between them, computer engineering programs are opportunities not to be passed up.

What exactly does it mean to study a blend of electrical engineering and computer science? You?ll understand the fundamentals of circuit design, systems, and various types of delicate hardware on the electrical engineering side. But rather than continuing to study only physical components of technology, students enrolled in computer engineering programs veer off in another direction as well. They study coding, interface design, and other aspects of software that traditionally belong in the field of pure computer science as well. With the combination of these two differing programs stemming from two branches of knowledge, computer engineers are uniquely poised to bring all their studies together. They combine knowledge of hardware and software and are capable of creating products from the ground up: from circuits and wiring to user interfaces and applications. Computer engineering programs prepare you to understand devices like MP3 players, computers, cameras, and much more.

Computer engineering is truly an exciting burgeoning field with great opportunities. Computer engineers make respectable wages immediately out of college, and as you gain experience, those numbers only increase. Indeed, the top 10% of computer engineers in the US made an average of over $100,000 a year, according to the US Bureau of Labor! Enroll in one of the many computer engineering programs today.